# Advanced System Tracing on Android

This guide dives deeper into recording system traces on Android, building on the
concepts introduced in the
[System Tracing](/docs/getting-started/system-tracing.md) guide.

Before you continue, you should be familiar with the basics of recording a
system trace using either the
[Perfetto UI](/docs/getting-started/system-tracing.md#android-perfetto-ui) or
the
[`record_android_trace`](/docs/getting-started/system-tracing.md#android-command-line)
script.

This guide covers the lower-level details that these tools abstract away,
including:

- Enabling the Perfetto tracing services on older Android versions.
- Using the on-device `/system/bin/perfetto` binary directly.
- Writing and using a full trace config for advanced customization.

## Prerequisites: Enabling Tracing Services

Perfetto's tracing daemons (`traced`) are built into Android, but they are only
enabled by default on **Android 11 (R) and newer**.

If you are using **Android 9 (P)** or **Android 10 (Q)**, you must first enable
the tracing services by running the following command:

```bash
# Needed only on Android 9 (P) and 10 (Q) on non-Pixel phones.
adb shell setprop persist.traced.enable 1
```

NOTE: If you are using a version of Android older than 9 (P), the on-device
tools will not work. You must use the
[`record_android_trace`](/docs/getting-started/system-tracing.md#android-command-line)
script.

## Recording using the on-device /system/bin/perfetto command

The `record_android_trace` script is a wrapper around the on-device
`/system/bin/perfetto` binary. For most use cases, the script is recommended,
but you can also invoke the binary directly for more control.

```bash
# Example of invoking the on-device binary directly.
adb shell perfetto \
  # The path to the output file on device.
  # Time to record the trace.
  -o /data/misc/perfetto-traces/trace_file.perfetto-trace \
  # Time to record the trace.
  -t 20s \
  # The atrace categories to record.
  sched freq idle am wm gfx view binder_driver hal dalvik input res memory
```

However, there are several caveats to be aware of when using
`adb shell perfetto` directly:

- **Stopping the trace**: `Ctrl+C` does not work reliably with
  `adb shell perfetto`. It is only propagated correctly when using an
  interactive PTY-based session (i.e., running `adb shell` first, then
  `perfetto` inside the shell). For long-running traces, it is safer to use the
  `--background` flag and `kill` the process by its PID. See the
  [Tracing in the Background](/docs/learning-more/tracing-in-background.md)
  guide for more.

- **Passing trace configs**: On non-rooted devices before Android 12, SELinux
  rules prevent the `perfetto` process from reading config files from
  world-writable locations like `/data/local/tmp`. The recommended workaround is
  to pipe the config via standard input:
  `cat config.pbtx | adb shell perfetto -c -`. Since Android 12, you can place
  configs in `/data/misc/perfetto-configs` and pass the path directly.

- **Pulling trace files**: On devices before Android 10, `adb pull` may not be
  able to access the trace file directly due to permissions. The workaround is
  to use `adb shell cat`:
  `adb shell cat /data/misc/perfetto-traces/trace > trace.pftrace`.

## Using a Full Trace Config

For full control over the tracing process, you can provide a complete trace
config file instead of using command-line flags. This allows you to enable
multiple data sources and fine-tune their settings.

See the [Trace Configuration](/docs/concepts/config.md) page for a detailed
guide on writing trace configs.

WARNING: The below command does not work on Android P because the `--txt` option
was introduced in Q. The binary protobuf format should be used instead; the
details of this can be found on the
[_Trace configuration_ page](https://perfetto.dev/docs/concepts/config#pbtx-vs-binary-format).

If you are running on a Mac or Linux host, or are using a bash-based terminal on
Windows, you can use the following:

```bash
cat<<EOF>config.pbtx
duration_ms: 10000

buffers: {
    size_kb: 8960
    fill_policy: DISCARD
}
buffers: {
    size_kb: 1280
    fill_policy: DISCARD
}
data_sources: {
    config {
        name: "linux.ftrace"
        ftrace_config {
            ftrace_events: "sched/sched_switch"
            ftrace_events: "power/suspend_resume"
            ftrace_events: "sched/sched_process_exit"
            ftrace_events: "sched/sched_process_free"
            ftrace_events: "task/task_newtask"
            ftrace_events: "task/task_rename"
            ftrace_events: "ftrace/print"
            atrace_categories: "gfx"
            atrace_categories: "view"
            atrace_categories: "webview"
            atrace_categories: "camera"
            atrace_categories: "dalvik"
            atrace_categories: "power"
        }
    }
}
data_sources: {
    config {
        name: "linux.process_stats"
        target_buffer: 1
        process_stats_config {
            scan_all_processes_on_start: true
        }
    }
}
EOF

./record_android_trace -c config.pbtx -o trace_file.perfetto-trace
```

Or alternatively, when using directly the on-device command:

```bash
cat config.pbtx | adb shell perfetto -c - --txt -o /data/misc/perfetto-traces/trace.perfetto-trace
```

Alternatively, first push the trace config file and then invoke perfetto:

```bash
adb push config.pbtx /data/local/tmp/config.pbtx
adb shell 'cat /data/local/tmp/config.pbtx | perfetto --txt -c - -o /data/misc/perfetto-traces/trace.perfetto-trace'
```

NOTE: because of strict SELinux rules, on non-rooted builds of Android, passing
directly the file path as `-c /data/local/tmp/config` will fail, hence the
`-c -` + stdin piping above. From Android 12 (S), `/data/misc/perfetto-configs/`
can be used instead.

Pull the file using
`adb pull /data/misc/perfetto-traces/trace ~/trace.perfetto-trace` and open it
in the [Perfetto UI](https://ui.perfetto.dev).

NOTE: On devices before Android 10, adb cannot directly pull
`/data/misc/perfetto-traces`. Use
`adb shell cat /data/misc/perfetto-traces/trace > trace.perfetto-trace` to work
around.

The full reference for the `perfetto` cmdline interface can be found
[here](/docs/reference/perfetto-cli.md).